Sunday, November 11, 2007

BU Open 2007 results

The 13th annual BU Open was held on Saturday, November 10 on a lovely day in the student union of BostonUniversity. More than eighty players competed in what all agreed was a very pleasant venue – natural light from many windows, well-spaced tables and comfortable chairs, and a Starbucks a minute away in the food court (where one could grab pizza and burgers, sushi and salads, Chinese and turkey dinners between rounds.) TD Bernardo Iglesias of the Boylston Chess Foundation (under whose affiliation the tournament was rated) did his usual professional job. Of course, the tournament was sponsored by the Boston University Chess Club (Roza Eynullayeva and Barry Lai, co-presidents, Steven Abrahams, vice-president, Melvin Zhang, treasurer, and Richard Soohoo, secretary, and Robert Oresick, advisor.

This year a new prize, the Allan Ong prize for top undergraduate student, was added to honor Allan,who was the first presidentof the modern BU Chess Club and started the BU Open. After 14 years of living in Toronto andBoston, Allan returned to his native Manila in the Philippines.

The Open Section was won by Harvard freshman FM Teddy Coleman with 4 of 4 points.

Steven Abrahams, a BU freshman, won the U1900 section with 4 also.They both tied for the 1st annual Allan Ong prize for the top undergraduate college student.

Travis Dover, a BU alum and former BU Chess Club president, won the U1600 section, also with a perfect 4.

Stuart Finney of the BarringtonSchool had a very upsetting tournament.Stuart (1951) defeated NM Christopher Williams (2302; BU Open Champion of 2005), drew with NM Jacob Chudnovsky (2397; BU Open Champion in 1997, playing again for the first time in 10 years after a sojourn in California), and drew with LM Eric Godin (2200).

Open section

1st FMTeddy Coleman (4.0; $300)

2ndNMChristopher Williams(3.0; $40) & NMLawyer Times(3.0; $40)

Top U2200WIM Esther Epstein(3.0; $40) & Dr. Aung Kyaw Lwin (3.0; $40)

U1900 section

1stSteven Abrahams(4.0; $75)

2ndKapil Chandran(3.5; $40)

U1600 section

1stTravis Dover(4.0; $75)

2ndSoheil Saadat(3.5; $20) & Corey Tolbert (3.5; $20)

Top U1200Akshay Saini (3.0; $40)

Allan Ong Top Undergrad

FM Teddy Coleman (4.0) &Steven Abrahams (4.0)

Corey Tolbert (3.5; $50) (Corey won the prize money because Teddy and Steven qualified for more lucrative prizes.)